


Virus, Infection, and Alpha Affections

by BananaDew



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - The Walking Dead Fusion, Character Death, F/M, Fanfiction, Foursome - F/M/M/M, Inspired by The Walking Dead, Multi, Non-Canon Relationship, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Verse, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Other, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Polyandry, Suggestive Themes, Threesome - F/M/M, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25493644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananaDew/pseuds/BananaDew
Summary: In a world where the dead walk, people fight, and lives are lost no one can build that white picket fence anymore. The good ole dream of a stable home and happy life are just that, a dream. But can an omega make that dream a reality again? Can a woman, abandoned to die, bitten to turn, but genetically mutated to survive stand on top of this new world and say "Not this time."Her strength is hidden in weakness, her intelligence behind docile lifeless eyes, and her heart is in need of heavy patchwork. Can an omega who has been abandoned by her alpha revive like the dead and find the future she had always dreamed of? She didn't know, but she wanted to try.And who were these random strangers, alphas she had never known, barreling into her life and clinging to her? Her original alpha abandoned her, so of course she was their's to claim.  They wouldn't let go, and they wouldn't give her away."Don't worry darlin', I ain't nobody's bitch but yours.""I will die for this family, he's my son and you're my life.""Ain't nothin' gonna keep you away from me. They're the walkin' dead, they just don't know it yet.""I won't let you fall, I'll always be there to catch you."
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Original Female Character(s), Negan (Walking Dead)/Original Female Character(s), Rick Grimes/Original Female Character(s), Shane Walsh/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 97





	1. *Chapter One*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins with a little thing called heat....
> 
> This is rated M for Mature. You have been notified. Now please read on. :)

‘The world is a strange one, with things I could have never seen coming. I thought my life would take a different route, a different journey into a different time. Of course it had been one that was supposed to be filled with loving memories and moments. Instead all that remains is the horror-driven reality. The future I had envisioned was never going to come to fruition. Instead I was going to live in this burning agony, trapped in this world of regression and devastation. To top it off I was going to die in it too, as soon as the door on the other end of this wretched room splintered from all that savage banging. Well the jokes on the Ravished, I’m already dead inside, my body just wants to torture me until the end. Traitorous bitch.’

The fever had turned into an inferno, a sheen of sweat coated every inch of her in a thick second skin. If she had had the strength, she would have already torn what clothing was left off just for a moment a relief from the suffocating restriction they caused. But alas, her last bit of physical strength had been used up with her screaming out for the one who left her there to die. 

Closing her vivid blue-green eyes, she laid there waiting for the end to come. Her body trembling in agony, her throat so raw that not even a whisper could escape. In her mind she replayed the last forty-eight hours, her mind hissing in repressed anger her nature refused to let her express. No, that wasn’t right, it wasn’t anger. It was pure undiluted hate and disgust. 

Perhaps if there was anything left in her stomach, she would have felt bile rise up to scald her raw throat thinking about what happened. Instead her diaphragm began to spasm as she started to dry-heave, the sheer force of it lifting her slightly from the floor and allowed her to roll on her side. She was grateful for the position switch, her back crying out adding fuel to the raging fever she already battled. A conflicting battle of pain and need, her body begging out for salvation. 

A moan slipped out her lips as the fire in her body sizzled and sweat thickened. The sounds of banging on the other side of the door continued, the beginnings of metal hinges straining piercing her oversensitive hearing like a shrill dog whistle. She should smile, it would all be over soon. Yet she found the only thing she could do was scowl at the thought. Here, even in the end, her nature just told her to lay there and accept what was coming. Be docile for death. 

‘This is why…this is why he left me here. For the thing he said he loved me most for, he abandoned me for.’

The sounds of savage Ravished continued on the other side of the door. They would be upon her soon, tearing her apart. She wondered how she smelled to them for a brief moment. Was it like she would have smelled to him? No, she doubted it. If the Ravished could drool, it wouldn’t be the same reason. No, she was food to them. Meat to be sucked off the bone. Did they suck? 

Though her throat was raw, a ragged laugh began to pool up it and out her mouth. It was wheezy and sounded like grit under feet, but it was still a human laugh. Even to her own ears, it sounded like madness though, finally she was going to lose grip on her reality and fall into that void. And all because she wondered if the Ravished had enough mental function to know how to suck her flesh from her bones. 

‘To think this is the end. Can they quench this burning inside of me while they tear into my body? What a way to die, trapped in this burning agony and being eaten alive. Here I smell like a tasty morsel so the least those bastards can do is douse this raging fire burning my core.’

Her ears were filled with the sounds of bodies slamming at the door, the same terrifying moans and groans. Really she would be lying to herself if she had said that the sounds weren’t terrifying anymore, that she wasn’t afraid. It was alright to be afraid wasn’t it? It shouldn’t be a crime to cry and want to live in a world that was reborn out of the nightmare of the walking dead. She shouldn’t be faulted for her genetically engraved behavior. 

But her very genetics were also the reason she was slowly slipping into madness. Laying on that disgusting smelling carpet that had seen better days even before the dead began to walk, her body was battling what was once a thing to look forward to. Something she relished in because it made him so happy with her. But now, now it was her enemy because her alpha wasn’t there to help. Wasn’t there to caress her face, to kiss her plump needy lips, to tell her he would take care of everything and she would be alright. 

The days of pillow nests, warm blankets, and loving touches were gone. The dead rose up and became the Ravished, forever hungry and unsatisfied. Her weak gentle nature became a burden. Her soft body became a hindrance. Her docile and innocent personality became an annoyance. For the first time, her lack of willful behavior and non-existent self-independence was seen as true unacceptable weakness. 

It shouldn’t have been possible. He shouldn’t have changed the way he saw her, the way he had kept her all those years, and the way he had said he loved her to be. She had been perfect, he said. She had been what she was born to be and all she needed to do was rely on him, to love him, to obey her alpha. Even when she had gotten sick, he had been at her side a loyal lover and protector. Even when she was on the verge of death before this hellish world began, her alpha had held her hand and said he would never leave her. 

Then the dead rose up and the world went to hell. She only had a few months left to live before, but she fought for them for him. She kept up with him despite the disease that ravaged her inside. She worked with him in anything and still kept up with his desires. But what did it get her in the end? Would it be different if he had stayed? Would he chose different if he knew what was happening inside her? 

Her laughing continued, a dry wheezing grit, the voice of madness as she lay there on that carpet withering in agony as the fever took her higher. He probably wouldn’t have chosen differently. Not in this new world. She wasn’t what he needed now. She was nothing but a living corpse. If she was lucky, she would still be a memory that haunted him. 

Her vision had blurred long ago, her eyes flickering open to blink but to no avail. Everything was fire and so she accepted it all, waiting for the world to burn around her. The fever ate away her mind, devoured her core, and licked her flesh. Soon she would be nothing more than a puddle of human flesh, a wanton nothingness, a waiting buffet. 

Before she could slip into that state of mental void completely, the last thing she registered was the sound of gunshots and the grunts of the living against the dead. Had he come back for her? She’d rather be torn apart, her flesh left to sit undigested into rotten stomachs. 

More laughter fell from her lips, a sound that would put anyone on edge, a sound that screamed out pain and brokenness. A mad dog laying in its own filth. That’s what she had become. Nothing more than a bitch in heat during the fucking apocalypse. 

The sound of laughter died as the fever raged to the breaking point. Now all she could do is whimper. The pain was too much, it had never been like this before. Never felt like this. He had always stopped the fire before. Is this what it is like without him? 

A quiet moan left her lips as she struggled to move, her spongy-soft moist skin feeling as though it were rubbing sandpaper. She resisted the urge to call out his name, begging him to come back, to help her. He was long gone. No one would help her. Discarded. Unwanted. 

‘I don’t want this…I don’t want to die like this. Why…I want to…Please…help me.’

The last of her thoughts fell from her lips, a plea she thought she hadn’t uttered bouncing off the walls and back to her oversensitive ears. It was then she noticed how quiet it was, noticed the banging had quit and the air itself seemed to be holding its breath just waiting for her to speak out. The plea for help fell from her lips once more time, the last she could give as her body began to shut down. 

The fever had taken her past no return. She knew it couldn’t kill her, it was a part of who she was, what she was. But the disease that ravaged her, the infection that had slowly spread through her. That would be her final end. Her call for help would be the destruction of her savior’s life as they knew it. It would be the beginning of a change they wouldn’t be prepared for. 

The sound of metal grinding and a door slamming was like the beginnings of a distant dream. She tried to look, to see who or what was coming her way. Was it really him? Did her alpha come back for her? 

She felt hands touch her, her skin cooling from the contact. It had to be an alpha, her alpha. Only he could calm the fever. With what little strength she had, she reached out to touch him, whimpering in pain and need, whimpering in want and at the same time whimpering in the emotional agony that ate at her mind. 

“Shit…fever….heat.”

“Omega….hold on…”

“Too far gone….no choice…forgive…”

She felt something rough replace the cool touch of skin to skin, something rubbing her raw as if she was being flayed alive by a blunt knife. And just as the stinging pain had come, it was gone again. Her skin was slowly caressed by that cooling touch, her muscles giving spasm under each gentle caress. 

She felt a cool dampness on her face and fingers cradle the back of her head. The thirst that had long built in her mouth was eased as cold water dripped along her tongue. As if a mind of its own, her crusted swollen lips wrapped tightly around the wet cloth dripping water into her mouth and she began to suck more into her mouth. The sounds of her suckling drawling groans from whomever was holding her head in place. 

“Slow….don’t…”

“I’m clean….give her…yourself…”

She couldn’t hear them, her hearing had finally dampened down. She should be able to hear them well, but like her vision it was all blurring together from the fever. Her mind had focused only on the cooling touch of those fingers in her hair and the receding thirst of her dry mouth. Her raw throat felt as though it was given a second life, soothed and ebbing the soreness away. 

The wet cloth she was sucking on vanished, the relief it had given her burning lips going with it, but only briefly. Thoughts became an unnecessary thing as warm sure lips pressed against hers. They pressed against her with a strength she didn’t have to match, but the cool relief that came with that bruising intensity was all that mattered. She would let him devour her if it meant the fever was washed away. 

When he licked the seam of her cracked lips, she gave him no resistance, her mouth opening for him earnestly. He didn’t hesitate, his tongue thrust into her mouth, and she tasted the sweetness of his saliva mingling with hers. He tasted like peppermint candy, spicy yet cold like ice. It made her moan into the kiss, the urge to rub herself against this man at the tip of every curve and surface. 

"Can't...need..."

She could hear a gruff voice, and knew in the back of her mind there was more than one man with her. She knew neither man was her man. Knew he hadn’t come back for her. But none of it mattered as the man kissing her thrust his tongue into her mouth over and over again. The taste of peppermint was sweeter than anything she had tasted before and she found herself addicted to its flavor. 

The heat had started to burn harder at her core, and even though she was tasting ice, her skin was still hot, her blood still boiling. A moan turned into a whimper and filled the man’s mouth, but he never stopped kissing her. His saliva offered as much relief as it could for her, the enzymes it produced quenching the thirst but doing little to dampen the need. 

She wanted, no needed, more from him but he was focused on kissing her only. It was becoming tortuous and cruel. Her hips found the strength to buck up against him, but he moved away, denying her that contact. 

Then a growl reached her ears followed by that gruff voice. It was soothing and gritty at the same time, and it calmed her down momentarily, allowing her to focus on the lips moving against hers in painful pleasure. It wasn’t enough though, and the other man knew it too. 

She gasped into the kiss when she felt his hands on her hips, relief washing through her as the sweat drenched pants that hugged her like a second scratchy skin was pulled down her thighs. Cold fingers rough from callouses padded across her tender skin, drawling circles closer and closer to where she needed them to be. 

The man kissing her broke away and she sucked in a breath of air into her lungs letting out a moan as she exhaled. Her body trembled and she arched her hips up like an offering. 

“Can’t…her name…wrong…”

“-stand…needs this…heat…omega…”

The men were conversing, leaving her with nothing for a moment to quell the flames. Need ravaged her, her mind full of only drowning it all out, dousing the fire. 

“Please…” Her voice cracked, her hands reached towards where she thought the men to be. Where they disgusted with her? Did they pull away because she was discarded? Did they know her man, her alpha, had abandoned her, that she was unworthy? 

“Fuck it…Forgive…help you darlin'…” The gruff voice filled her ears just as the sweet taste of peppermint filled her mouth. 

They wouldn’t abandon her here. They would douse the flames that ate away at her. They would save her from her traitorous body. 

She let herself flow away as hands gripped her hips, as peppermint filled her mouth, and as the fire at her core began to cool with every flick and wiggle of a skilled tongue.


	2. *Chapter Two*

She woke to low voices, her body wrapped in a sheet that didn’t smell the greatest. Her blue-green eyes opening slowly as her body hummed with new life. But it was a life she didn’t know how to live and they were strangers she didn’t know if she could trust. Was it safe to make a sound, to alert them she was alive despite it all? The fever didn’t take her, the disease was silent inside her now, and the infection…subdued waiting for another day. 

Her body was brimming with life, life she hadn’t had in months, not since that first treatment ate away her immunity. Treatment after treatment, her strength had fallen away. But he never left her. Then the treatments couldn’t be anymore. The world had fallen from what they were born into. Still he didn’t leave her, they traveled everywhere, always together. So why, when she was dying, when she was roasting from the inside out and withering did he walk away? Why, when she could have just hours left did he break her and leave her like it was nothing?

The alphas, she was sure both men were, had stopped talking and turned to stare at her. She could feel their eyes burning into the side of her face and wondered if she had done anything to alert them, unaware they had been straining to hear any change in her all morning. Now they knew she was awake, knew the fever of heat had passed and she could focus. 

Still they stayed where they stood and made no move towards her, no action to cower her down as the omega they knew she was. It was strange to her, this behavior, though stranger still was that they both were breathing. In a world gone to hell, alphas didn’t restrict themselves anymore when it came to fighting for an omega’s attention. Killing another alpha was just like breathing, her alpha had done it with ease when they ran across someone who took a shine to her. 

But he was gone now and here she was left broken and at the mercy of two alphas who didn’t even see her worth fighting to the death over. Why were they still there? Why hadn’t they left her behind like her own alpha? If he could fight the instinct they surly could. Or was it because there wasn’t another omega to take their minds away from her. Perhaps they didn’t have an omega partner anymore. 

The woman closed her eyes, a tear rolling down her left cheek. It was fine, everything was fine. Her alpha didn’t want her anymore. He had left her in the harshest way, abandoning her as heat kissed her skin, as infection bared teeth and punctured in. He took in a stray and in the height of her pain, and worse still he called out her name as he made love to it. Then he left her there, left her as he replaced her with a willful overbearing omega. Something he always said he hated. 

“He left me,” she whispered out, another tear rolling down her face, her eyes opening as she remembered the last night she saw her alpha. 

The two alphas went rigid, their posture shifting to an almost feral stance. They had long since smelled the stench of alpha in the room with the little omega. They had wondered what had happened, how the alpha could leave his or her omega in such a state. But to hear an alpha had abandoned their omega? 

The two men looked at one another, disbelief in their eyes as their stances relaxed. It wasn’t possible, an alpha wouldn’t abandon their omega unless something happened. One of the walkers in the hall had to have been her alpha and she is just coming to terms that he or she is gone now. 

The gentler looking of the two men moved closer to the woman, his face favoring a slight shadow of facial hair and his vivid blue eyes, the bluest she had ever seen, stared at her with a look of pity and guilt.   
“What’s your name,” the man asked, his hand moving to touch his chest. “My name’s Rick.” 

‘Don’t tell him your name. Rebel. If you don’t rebel Rick will leave you here just like he did. Be willful.’ Her mind screamed for her to try and be stronger, to fight the lull in his voice that called out to that side of her that craved authority. 

It was a battlefield inside, one that didn’t want him to know, didn’t want him to say her name, and didn’t want to hear her name ever again. Her name disgusted her now, it was ruined, tarnished through the vile act her alpha committed crying it out. She didn’t want to hear this man call her by it. But she didn’t want to lie to him, didn’t want him disappointed in her. 

“Lucy,” she found herself saying, a name rolling off her lips that she hadn’t heard since her momma was around. Her momma was long dead now though, her papa too. Her alpha had ‘saved’ them when they had turned into the Ravished. 

“Lucy,” Rick repeated, giving her a smile. He could tell she was holding something back, but at the same time she wasn’t lying. ‘Lucy’ was a name she went by. He hoped she would be willing to tell him all of it one day.   
“Well Lucy, my friend Daryl and I need to get back home. There are people waiting for us, depending on us to come back.”

Lucy could feel her eyes begin to tear up all over again. These men had people. The alphas didn’t need her after all. They were going to leave her. 

The other man moved then, he was hard looking, but beautiful to her eyes as she turned her gaze from Rick to him. He must have been Daryl, there weren’t anyone else in the room. He was rough-edged, perhaps even before the world turned to hell. He gave off the kind of vibe her Alpha did, strong and prideful. Yet at the same time she saw what she had never seen in her alpha in him. The gentleness in his eyes, the brokenness that reflected out of them. Her alpha had never had that, he had never been broken. 

It made her want to get up, made her want to run to him and check him for any wounds. She wanted to grip his face in her hands and drink it in then kiss the brokenness away. It was an urge Lucy had never felt before. The urge to make sure her alpha was safe and sound. But Daryl wasn’t her alpha. He had people waiting for him to come home. 

Lucy took a breath, it was loud to all their ears and left a silent moment hand in the air after she exhaled. She wondered if they were waiting to see if she would go with them, but the thought passed her by as she remembered the night before and the things they had done to help her. There was no doubt in her mind they wouldn’t want a living reminder of what they did away from their people. They were strong alphas, she was sure they had omegas waiting wherever they called home. 

At that thought, Lucy stared to Daryl again, a whimper rising in her throat as she thought about the brokenness looking back at her. She thought back to the voices last night, her memory of what was said in broken pieces. However she knew Rick’s voice now, she could identify him as her peppermint kisser. That met Daryl had been the one to push her into sweet cooling oblivion. So was it her fault then? Had she broken an alpha by being the reason he cheated on his omega?

Daryl could guess the thoughts running through Lucy’s mind. She didn’t shield emotion like omegas he had met did. She was still submissive, still so docile even in times like this. It was something so strange to see, to find that he almost questioned if she had ever left the room they found her in. 

He knew how he looked to her. A rough redneck, a broken alpha, a loser. A part of him hoped she didn’t ask about the night before. He didn’t want to remember it. She had been burning with heat and it had left both Rick and him in an awkward place of wanting to help but not going too far. Rick couldn’t do more than offer her the enzymes in his saliva since Lori was waiting for him back at camp. That left Daryl to do what he could to soothe the unknown woman. 

He didn’t want to think about it, about what it was like, about how she tasted. He didn’t want to remember her moans and cries that rang in his ears whenever Rick stopped kissing her. He didn’t want to remember the name she cried out when he brought her to the edge and pushed her over into bliss. It hadn’t been his name, it was never going to be his name. 

Rick saw the tension between Lucy and Daryl, could see the rigid way Daryl held himself back from her, kept himself in check. It was painful to watch, even if Daryl wasn’t someone he had known long, he knew Daryl was a man with a painful past. Something about Lucy must have stirred something in Daryl and now the poor man was trapped in his mind. 

Deciding there was enough tension, Rick let a fake cough before putting a smile on his face, grabbing Lucy's attention as soon as she heard him make a sound. 

“Are you okay? Did you get sick?” Lucy gave Rick a look filled with worry. He was an alpha who worked hard to assist her in her time of need despite having someone to return to. She remembered his voice, she knew he had been reluctant. Thinking that he may be sick nagged at her, her instincts lecturing her inside her mind that she must have given him her disease – which wasn’t possible, it wasn’t transmittable. 

Rick was surprised by Lucy’s expression that was filled with worry. He had seen her face when she looked at Daryl, he was sure they had a connection forming between him so to see her with a worried look over a cough – a fake one at that – had Rick almost stumbling on what he was going to say. When was the last time Lori had looked at him like that? Was it before everything around them happened? ‘Then again Lori was a beta. Maybe omegas are just different creatures all together. Something filled with caring looks and kindness without bite.’ Rick didn’t know, but he liked it, deep down a part of him enjoyed the look of worry on her face just for him. 

Realizing he hadn’t answered her, Rick cleared his throat. “No-no ma’am, I’m fine. But Lucy we were talking and we don’t want to leave you behind. I’m sorry but we believe your alpha died and became a walker-“

“A what?” Lucy gave them a questioning look. “What on earth is a walker?”

Daryl closed his eyes. He was rethinking his previous thought on Lucy having never left the room she was in. After all how would she not know what a walker was? How on earth was that even possible? 

“Lucy…how long have you been here?” Daryl’s voice came out gruff and gritty with that redneck southern twang. It was nice and soothing to the ear causing Lucy to want to purr in her chest. 

“Um…three days, maybe four? We-I was just staying in here waiting for the herd of Ravished to go away. They usually do-don’t trap me like last night, because –” Lucy stopped. She was going to say they didn’t trap her like that because her alpha always took care of them before they got that bad, but she didn’t want to talk about him. He left her there to die alone. She didn’t want them to know she wasn’t worth their time, that she was a discarded omega. They would think she was defected. 

“The Ravished?” Rick asked, raising an eyebrow. He was pretty sure she was talking about walkers. 

“Yeah, because they ravage and then those who are ravaged rise up and become them….” Lucy trailed off starting to think her logic was stupid with the bored look on Daryl’s face. “Never mind,” she mumbled, her eyes downcast.   
Rick tried not to laugh. This woman was just so gentle it was a miracle she had survived this new world. “Right. Hey good analogy for them, don’t worry. We call them walkers though, less of a mouthful really.”

Lucy smiled at Rick, her face showing dimples in each cheek as she did so. Both he and Daryl were caught, their eyes greedily taking in that smile. Rick loving the way her face lit up from it, as if the horrors of the world didn’t exist. Daryl couldn’t help but think the dimples in her cheeks adorable, his hands fisting up as he reminded himself again that he was nothing but a redneck loser. He wasn’t an alpha she could depend on. 

“So will you come with us Lucy?” Rick looked hopeful at the woman, his eyes taking in her olive skin and bouncy tight black curly hair. He just wanted to gather her hair up in his fist and…Rick blinked. ‘What the hell was I just thinkin’?’ He wondered, licking his lips as his mind conjured an image of him kissing her from the night before. They needed to get out of that room, the smell of her heat still hung in the air no doubt messing with his mind.   
Daryl strained, his eyes traveling from Lucy to Rick. The more feral part of him wanted to punch Rick in the face. He could see how the other alpha was attracted to the little omega the way he was looking at her. Unable to help himself, Daryl picked up his stuff, shoving stuff out of the way as he walked past Rick and Lucy towards the door. 

They both turned to look at him, breaking any eye contact they may have been making. 

“Well come on woman, we don’t have all day and I ain’t leavin’ you here to die.” Daryl’s voice was demanding and sent shivers down Lucy’s spine. She licked her lips and nodded, stepping forward to follow Daryl out the door when Rick coughed again causing Daryl to snarl at him. 

“Um Lucy…Maybe you should put on some clothes. As, uh, lovely as you look in a sheet…” Rick trailed off as Lucy’s face took on shades of red due to her embarrassment and his eyes glanced to Daryl as if asking for help only to find the man bent over hastily looking for clothing from his own pack. “Alright then…I think Daryl will have you covered in no time.” Rick chuckled at the other alpha, shaking his head. 

Their lives had really changed overnight. And to think, before they caught her smell they were going to set the building on fire as a distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is my very first A/B/O. I've read a lot of them and about it, but I might make changes on the genre based on how I write the story. Sorry if it isn't exactly cookie-cutter. Hope you are enjoying the story so far!


	3. *Chapter Three*

Lucy found herself walking in-between the two men, that being the safest choice according to them so that they could keep an eye on her. Not that she minded, it was really nice to feel protected. She couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want this feeling. It made her smile despite the circumstances. 

In the end, Daryl had ripped his own shirt off and shoved it over Lucy’s head. Now all he had on was a leather biker vest. They didn’t have any pants to spare so she ended up putting her leggings from the night before back on. It wasn’t the most comfortable experience, but she couldn’t complain. 

As for shoes…her boots seemed to have vanished – of course she was sure they had actually been stolen, but she wasn’t going to tell Rick or Daryl that. They would ask questions she wasn’t ready to answer. With shaky hands she had put on a pair of bloodstained sneakers Daryl took off a dead body. It made her nervous and thought of the saying that wearing a dead man’s shoes brought bad luck. The sneakers were a size too large but they would do what she needed them to. Like her leggings, she didn’t complain.

Rick and Daryl were amazed by Lucy’s easy-going personality. She didn’t whine or complain like others did. She didn’t fight them for control in the situation with how they walked through the alleyways of Atlanta City, making their way to where an abandoned car was hiding in wait. 

While they walked, they told her what they were doing in Atlanta City in the first place. They had come looking for supplies for the camp, just a two man team. 

In truth Rick and Daryl were trying to get along. They had a rocky start when they met up together a week back for the first time. Rick had handcuffed Merle, Daryl’s older brother, to the roof of a building. When they came back to find him, he was gone. Man had cut off his own hand to get away. At least Daryl was sure his brother had got away. 

After not finding him, they had run into a little trouble going for the bag of guns Rick had brought with him, having dropped it in the middle of the road by a tank when he was running for his life from walkers. 

They told Lucy all about that too, which made the poor omega weep in sympathy for Merle, something Daryl was sure no one at camp had done upon hearing he was gone. He appreciated her tears, they were genuine. His brother probably didn’t deserve an omega of all people crying for him, but Daryl would never tell Lucy that. 

Lucy felt closer to Rick and Daryl as they shared bits about their lives. They were distracting her from the horror that surrounded her, she knew. It made her like them all the more that they would shield her from the dystopia the new world was. They knew she knew what the world was like, that the walkers had overrun the world, and that the dead ate the living. However that didn’t mean she had to submerge herself in that world. 

Several times Lucy kept herself from laughing when one of the men said something particularly funny. She didn’t want to make too much noise and draw unwanted attention. She had to watch out for her alp– no the men just like they were watching out for her. 

“Tell me about Lori, you mentioned she was your wife,” Lucy mumbled, fighting the urge to sniffle. She needed a reminder that these alphas weren’t hers, needed to be able to build a wall between them. 

Daryl was just fine with Rick talking about his wife – though the whole camp knew something no one was willing to tell the sheriff. As long as Rick told Lucy about Lori, she would know Rick wasn’t available to her. The thought was completely selfish on Daryl’s part and completely unfair since he didn’t believe he was capable of being available to Lucy either, but damn it if he couldn’t be her alpha no one else in the group could either. 

They had paused and Rick was rolling thoughts of Lori around in his mind trying to think of how to describe her to Lucy. He eyed Daryl ahead of them and noticed the man had also stopped to think, his eyes closed and a peaceful look sliding on his face for a moment. 

“Lori and I were married before all this hell broke loose. We have a son named Carl, he’s twelve years old. Twelve…” For a moment Rick couldn’t believe how time flew. His eyes slid to Lucy a moment. Twelve years…and she was the first woman he had ever kissed that wasn’t Lori. Why didn’t he feel it then? Why didn’t he feel the guilt of stepping out on his wife for the first time?

Lucy was surprised to hear that Rick had a child that was twelve years old. It was something she hadn’t expected of the man. She wondered what his child looked like – was he as gentle looking as his dad? And what about his wife, Lori? Lucy bet she was very beautiful. From how Rick spoke, she must be one of those southern bells. 

Lucy bit her bottom lip thinking that. Her hands unconsciously rubbed her arms in a nervous gesture. Lori was going to be unhappy when she found out Lucy knew Rick tasted like peppermint when he kissed. Would that cause problems between them? Lori didn’t have anything to worry about. As far as Lucy was concerned, she wasn’t pretty enough to draw Rick’s attention. 

Being of mixed decent hadn’t always given Lucy the best results in self-confidence. Children weren’t the kindest to someone who was different. Her papa had been half Italian and half African, her momma Irish. The results were a very pale olive-skinned Lucy with tight curly black hair that favored her father’s bloodlines. And black hairy arms. Lucy hated her arms the most. 

Daryl grunted, his eyes opening when Rick stopped talking. He saw how Lucy seemed to be frowning, her hands rubbing up and down her arms in what had to be a nervous habit. He didn’t know what was wrong, but they were almost at the car they stashed away so it could wait until they were out of Atlanta City. 

“Almost there…shit!” Daryl growled low as he caught sight of walkers near the car. Seven pox-eaten bastards and he didn’t have enough arrows for them all. They would have to fight hand to hand. 

“Rick, seven walkers-“

“I see them.” Rick glanced to Lucy the same time Daryl did. She didn’t seem the type to fight, which in this new world order was going to be a problem. 

“Lucy…” Rick didn’t know what to do. They needed to kill the walkers but they had to do it silently so they didn’t draw attention. 

Lucy stared at the walkers around the car. She rubbed her arms again, harder this time as she tried to think on what to do. The truth was Lucy had never fought against the Ravished. Run, hide, those where what she was always supposed to do. She had hid behind her alpha all the time. But that behavior caused him to abandon her in the end. 

Her blue-green eyes flickered between Rick and Daryl, seeing the tension in their bodies as they thought about what to do with her. She was dragging them down when they were so close to getting back to their people. They were kind enough to help her, to ease the pain she had suffered in her heat when they could have left her and been home by now. 

Lucy gave both alphas a sad smile, her mind making a choice to get them home. They didn’t move as she took a step away from their protection, her eyes watering slightly but her determination staying rigidly in place. Fear gripped her limbs and wanted to freeze her in place but she swallowed it down. 

They had people to get home to, she had nothing. They had lovers waiting for them and she was just a passing stranger. 

Her omega instincts fought to keep her by their side. The urge to duck her head and hide in their arms echoed through the hard beating of her heart. It was so loud in her ears, like rushing water dulling her senses. 

‘He left you to die,’ she reminded herself, her heart slowing. 

‘He left you because you are weak.’ She took another step away from them towards the walkers. 

‘He left you because you can’t survive this new world.’ She pivoted on her heels to face her chosen end. 

‘He left you.’

Before Daryl or Rick could reach her, before they could move, Lucy took off sprinting to her death. She would make sure they get home. They deserved to be with the people they loved. They were worthy alphas. 

Her feet beat against the pavement as she sprinted towards the walkers. She knew she couldn’t make noise, it would only draw more. But she could get close to them. She could distract them. 

Her eyes took in everything, every little detail as adrenaline rushed through her. Her heartbeat roared in her ears and hands were in tight fists, nails piercing her palms. 

‘He left you in pain.’ Her legs pumped harder. 

‘He brought her in,’ she picked up a piece of lead pipe rusted and discard just like her. 

‘He fucked her beside you while the heat ate away your senses.’ She lifted the pipe up like a bat the way she had seen him do so many times before the dead rose up. 

‘He called out your name, he replaced you.’ She swung.

The pipe hit the walker in the arm, nothing that would actually cause damage. But the walker did round on Lucy, she had its full attention now. The other six slowly began to look for her with their milky life-less eyes. She didn’t understand how they could see her through such useless things, but they gravitated towards her as she swung the pipe again, this time hitting the walker in the neck. 

A sick cracking sound followed as the walker’s head jerked to the right, skin split open like grape flesh and the walker’s mouth almost appeared to make gasping motions reminding Lucy of a fish. But she couldn’t stop. The alphas behind her were counting on her. They needed to go home. They couldn’t leave their loved ones. No one needed to feel dead inside like she did. 

Gathering courage she didn’t know she had, Lucy lifted the pipe again and swung at the walker, the pipe smashing through weak skull, a slight spongy feeling rebounding up her arm. But it didn’t matter. She had killed it. 

A fresh rush of adrenaline flooded her veins as she pivoted like a ballerina, her pipe coming down on the walker within arm’s reach of her. She heard the collarbone crack, but her ears also picked up the sound of an arrow behind her. 

Daryl and Rick had been frozen in place, their minds filled with static as they watched Lucy slowly step away from them. The sad smile that had been on her face was almost haunting to the two alphas, unsure what was about to happen. When she turned and sprinted into danger, the primal part of both their minds took over. 

The first time she swung the pipe, Daryl snapped out of it. The tiny docile omega they had picked up had just run towards seven walkers. Was she suicidal? Could this be due to her alpha dying? So many questions were fighting to get to the forefront of his mind, but the primal part, what made him an alpha crushed them as they came. 

His vision turned dark, his pupils blowing out wide until the steel blue was gone. The bow he usually relied on clattered to the pavement along with the quill of arrows that rested on his back. His powerful legs pushed him forwards to Lucy, a roar of rage falling from his lips as his hands pulled out his hunting knives. 

Rick wanted to shoot. He wanted to lift his gun and put a bullet in every walker’s brain. The rational side of his brain told him it wasn’t a wise idea, that it would do more harm than good. The primal side of his brain didn’t care, didn’t want to think of the after and only of the now.

Lucy was in danger. He had to help her. He had to protect her. The little omega he found trembling in pain, the woman he was willing to watch suffer at first because he was afraid of what his wife would think if he helped her. The woman who ran into danger so he could return to his family. 

The omega. The woman. Lucy.

Rick growled, snatching up Daryl’s discarded bow and notching an arrow half-hazarded. It didn’t matter, he would do this. He would get home to his family, and he would take Lucy to a safe haven. He let the arrow fly, his pupils blown out black as he focused on his target. He wasn’t Daryl, he wasn’t a hunter, but he could do this. For Lucy he could do anything he needed to. 

Barely two minutes had passed as the three people, practically complete strangers, fought together to survive. Seven walkers dwindled down to only one, crawling and snapping its jaw in Lucy’s direction. The walker’s legs were nothing but nubs of bone from the knee up. The person it had been long since unrecognizable as loose flesh hung in rivets from its face. 

Lucy was tired, her body exhausted and the adrenaline had flushed out of her system. Her arms felt like jelly and the pipe slick with human gore had clattered from her trembling fingers. All she could do was stare at that crawling husk of what had been a person and wonder who they were before all this. 

Tears rolled down her cheeks as her knees gave out under her and hit the filthy pavement. A hand stretched out as if she wanted to comfort the walker, as if she wanted to hold him or her and make it all go away. But the walker would never understand comfort, never understand emotion. It only knew the hunger within. 

Daryl panted, his energy low from a lack of steady diet. His heart constricted as he watched Lucy reach out to the walker, he could almost taste the woman’s angst on his tongue. Yet before he could move to stomp the walker down, an arrow flew and pegged it right in the forehead. Daryl heard Lucy give out a muffled scream and then his body moved on its own to catch her as she fainted. 

Rick moved quickly as Lucy swayed and went down, but Daryl still got to her first. He felt terrible she had seen such a horrible thing. He couldn’t let her continue on and had to get rid of the walker so she could look away. 

“Get the arrows.” Daryl growled out at him, causing Rick to snarl back. 

However he stopped as rational thought took over and he gazed at Lucy’s peaceful expression in Daryl’s arms. He knew the arrows were too important to leave behind. 

“Get her in the car, there should be a little room in the back to lay her down. She’s so fucking short anyways.” Rick moved and jerked arrows out of the dead. “Not too bad a hit right?” He tried to joke as Daryl got Lucy settled. 

“Shot, and you’re terrible officer friendly.” Daryl gave him a tired smirk.

“Stubborn redneck,” Rick said with a smirk of his own as they both slid into the car. 

“Uppity pig,” Daryl replied, a chuckle rumbling from his chest. 

Rick just shook his head and glanced at Lucy before starting the car. “Let’s go home.” His mind trying to think rationally about everything, but the memory of her kisses and moans clouding his mind. 

Daryl stared at Lucy’s sleeping face from his side mirror. “Home,” he mumbled, his mind already thinking with that primal side of his that ‘home’ was in the back seat. She had been his home the minute he caught her scent and tasted her heat. He was ready to die for her, a woman he just met. But was he ready to love her? He didn’t know if he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN// So I was thinking about things, and I wanted to know - What do you think of Lucy so far? I was reading some comments on Youtube about Lori Grimes and how she jumped to Shane with only one-two months after assuming her husband was dead. This was a quick jump to one's husband's best friend and makes fans think that there had been something slowly building between them before the apocalypse or that Lori is just that kind of woman (we all know the terms people use, I just don't like to). I didn't want people to think the same about Lucy because her situation is different from Lori. Her alpha abandoned her after sleeping with a stubborn Omega they had taken in, the kind all her life he had told her he hated. He shattered her. She is still an Omega though and she can feel the primal urge to worry about alphas who are close to her. She did just meet Rick and Daryl, but they helped her get through something that caused more pain then it should have (we'll get to why later if you haven't guessed already). 
> 
> Do you think Lucy is like Lori? What is your opinion on our Main Female Lead so far?
> 
> Bonus: What do you think of Rick and Daryl?


	4. *Chapter Four*

Everyone at camp had been waiting for Rick and Daryl to return from their supply run in the city. It had been three days and they were all getting antsy. Andrea and the women were fearful of it all, having just days before watched Shane take on Ed, bashing the Beta’s face in. He’d been different ever since Rick came, growling and temperamental. The calm leadership they had come to expect from him was blurred with Rick in the camp now. 

Shane himself was trapped in a confused state. He was elated to see Rick had survived, but with that survival meant that Rick once again held everything in his hands that Shane envied. Rick was a more dominate alpha than Shane could ever be. And now what he had with Lori was also over, the woman refusing to be alone with him at any time now so Rick didn’t think she had gone astray. Worse part was that she even kept Carl away, destroying the bond they had formed little by little. All because Rick was here now. Betas were truly all the same. 

Sure Daryl was a dominate alpha, and Merle had been a tyrant, but they had kept to themselves away from the rest of the camp. As odd as it was for alphas, the Dixons seemed to be introverted. They stayed with the camp, helped provide for it, but they didn’t fight for power over it. It was as if they didn’t see the camp as worth it. 

Shane was sure if it weren’t for Sophia, they might not have stayed around. The little girl was the only omega in the group. She was nothing but a child in all their eyes, but all omegas inspired the protective gene in an alpha. They were also the reason Ed didn’t touch Sophia and only hit his wife, Carol. 

But she was a beta, and Shane let it slide waiting for Carol to finally stand up for herself. After he lost it thanks to arguing with Lori and needing something to let out his anger, Shane gave in and beat Ed to an inch of his life. The man had been picking on the women with his sexist attitude and hit Carol across the face again. 

But were any of those women grateful? No! Now they watched him with weary eyes. The longer Rick and Daryl were gone, the more unease fell over the camp. He could feel it, they didn’t want him to be in control anymore. He had done his best for this camp, guided them and protected them. It didn’t matter anymore though. He was slowly becoming a useless alpha. 

Shane looked up to watch Lori as she laughed with the women, preparing something for dinner. They were gossiping again, something that the apocalypse couldn’t even change about women. Carl and Sophia were playing cards with what was left of the sunlight, their faces were full of laughter which helped put some simplicity to a tension-filled air. 

Suddenly Dale called from the roof of the RV, his arms waving the group away from what they were doing to come watch as the beat-up sheriff car came towards them from the road. Lori held tight to Carl as they moved past Shane. It killed him to see that hope in her eyes, knowing she was waiting for Rick to come back to her. 

When the car came to a stop, Rick stepped out and gave them all a smile. Carl ran to his dad and wrapped his arms around him tight. Lori moved to step after him, but Rick detached his son from him and moved away in the opposite direction of his wife. Shane couldn’t help but feel his best friend was an ungrateful bastard for it, but all he did was give Rick a nod when the other man glanced his way. 

Carl didn’t see anything wrong with his father’s behavior. The whole camp had been keeping a deep secret from Rick, something even Carl knew but didn’t understand. Instead the twelve year old boy peered into the car, his eyes traveling over what his father had brought back. 

“Dad there’s a girl in there!”

Carl’s exclamation of excitement put the whole camp on edge. Strangers weren’t always a good thing. It had been luck the group had decided to trust Rick enough to bring him back with them. Shane held his gun close and started walking towards the car only to stop as a violent growl came from the front passenger side. 

It sent chills down Shane’s spine and caused the rest of the camp members to back off, afraid whoever it came from wasn’t too friendly. The only one who didn’t move away was Carl. He just glanced to see Daryl looking almost feral in Shane’s direction. 

“What’s her name? Is she okay? Why does she have blood on her clothes – Is that Daryl’s shirt?!”

Carl’s mouth never seemed to stop with the questions and it caused both Daryl and Rick to grimace. Children really did point out the most awkward things others knew to leave alone. At that moment Rick was just thankful he hadn’t given Lucy his shirt. He was having a hard enough time looking at Lori as it was. 

Daryl climbed out of the passenger seat, giving Shane one last look of pure alpha aggression before moving to open the back door. Keeping everyone in eyesight, he leaned down and shook Lucy’s thigh to get her attention. His large hand was warm and his fingers naturally spread across her legging covered muscle with ease. 

Lucy moaned softly before stretching as best she could, her blue-green eyes flickering open to see Daryl’s sun-kissed face. At first she was scared, confused to be in the backseat of a car. She wondered where her alpha was. When the shock wore off in seconds, memories ran through her mind in quick succession. Her alpha had left her. She met Rick and Daryl. Rick tasted like peppermint. Daryl sent tingles up her spine with a touch. She killed a Ravished. 

No. She killed a walker. She, an omega who always hid or ran, killed a walker. A weak gentle omega, a docile woman who enjoyed wrapping herself in fuzzy blankets and snuggling in a nest of pillows with her purple bunny slippers. Killed. A. Walker. 

“Holy cotton balls!” Her voice came out in her natural singsong manner, her words sliding into one another with smooth rhythm. It was a pleasant voice, not too high-noted, but feminine just the same. 

It caused Daryl to smirk as he offered his hand to help her out of the backseat. The look of bewilderment on her face faded as she placed her hand in his. That damned smile full of dimples beamed his way as she got out, standing only five-foot to his five-foot-eight. Her head came to his chest if he didn’t take into account her wild curly hair. 

Standing there in Daryl’s shirt and black leggings was Lucy, her blue-green eyes shifting from Daryl to take in the random group of strangers all staring back at her. Seeing such a large crowd after months of being on her own with only her alpha, Lucy wasn’t sure what to do. She felt nervous suddenly, her tongue running across her lips and her feet shuffling her even closer to Daryl until the side of her face bumped into his side. 

Rick stared at Lucy and Daryl from the other side of the cruiser. His eyes taking in every little action the omega made despite his brain telling him to stop. He didn’t like it though. He didn’t like her nervousness of the camp. He was afraid she was unhappy and might want to leave. He couldn’t let her leave. 

Moving around the cruiser, Rick stared down everyone, even Lori as he came to stand behind Daryl and Lucy. As if sensing him, Lucy used her free hand that wasn’t in Daryl’s warm grip to reach for him, catching the fabric of his shirt. It seemed to calm her down more knowing he was right there with her. 

Clearing his throat, Rick spoke in his silvery southern twang, his vivid light blue eyes shifting as the black pupil expanded and dilated with his emotions. 

“This is Lucy. We found her abandoned in a motel room. She’s a little shy so please give her space and allow her to come to you when she’s ready.”

Andrea and Amy looked at Lucy with curiosity. They couldn’t tell how old she was by looking at her, though Amy felt they were closer in age than the other women in the camp. Carol shuffled around beside a bruised up Ed, nervous that another woman had come to the camp, afraid that Ed would become harder to deal with. 

Jacqui and T-Dog stood a little ways away, but they smiled when they saw Lucy. Jacqui could tell right away that Lucy was different than the rest of them. She was softer, and gave off the same feeling as Sophia. T-Dog was just happy the guys had made it back, not caring they had brought a girl too. He was thankful for their return, afraid that Shane would only get worse as time went on. 

All in all, everyone in the camp took in Lucy giving her smiles or nods in acknowledgement. The only two who were uncomfortable with the current situation both stood with looks of confusion and emotion Lucy couldn’t decipher. These two were of course Lori and Shane. 

Lori was frowning. She didn’t understand what Rick was doing. Why was he standing behind that woman, why was he warning everyone away from her? Was she a threat? Why bring her back then? Was it because of Daryl? Lori didn’t like it. She had broken off her relationship with Shane when Rick came back. He had always been the more dominate of the two and if he was back it was right for her to be by his side. 

Sure Shane had helped her with her grief. He got her and Carl to safety, but that was his job as an alpha. He was supposed to provide and protect them. So what if Lori wasn’t an omega who naturally got that kind of care, she had managed to win over a dominate alpha for twelve years. She bore a child who no doubt was going to be a powerful alpha as well. 

It was only natural she push Shane to the side and rejoin her husband. So what she wanted to know right now was why on earth her husband stood behind some short stranger staring them all down like they were the threat. Why was that same woman holding onto his shirt like a lifeline while she tucked herself into Daryl’s side? 

Shane, on the other hand, was staring at Lucy in childlike curiosity and wonder. He knew why they had brought her back, any alpha would know. He could understand Daryl’s actions when he had tried to near the back of the cruiser with his gun. He had acted like a threat towards an omega, and her alpha didn’t like it. 

That train of thought had Shane going rigid. They had only been gone three days. There was no way a bond could be formed between an alpha and an omega in three days. His eyebrows wrinkled together as he studied the way Daryl and Rick stood around Lucy, taking in Lucy’s hand on Rick’s shirt and her other hand still resting in Daryl’s. This omega hadn’t bonded to an alpha, but she did seek one. 

It was like cold water had been dumped over Shane. All week he had watched as the new life he was building crumble around him. The woman he had fallen hard for rejected him. The kid he was trying to raise to survive this new world was constantly beyond his grasp. The final nail in the coffin was the authority he had over the camp was shifting into the hands of the man who had taken everything else. Now before him that same man was being clung to by the only grown omega Shane had ever seen. 

His pupils blew out wide and a growl rolled up in his chest. ‘Un-fucking-believable!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if you feel the characters are too out of character. I'm writing them the way I see their personalities when I watch the show. Please feel free to give me feedback on everything.


	5. *Chapter Five*

Only Rick and Daryl knew what was about to happen. Instinct had kept their attention trained on Shane since he had tried to round the cruiser. They didn’t fault him rationally for his behavior, they understood it was normal for alphas to go on the attack for an unclaimed omega in more barbaric societies. In a world where suppressants were hard to find, this was more natural behavior. They might have acted that way too if they hadn’t taken them to go on a supply run. 

The betas, however, who hadn’t sensed Lucy was an omega wouldn’t understand at the time what was about to happen. They were moving on instinct the minute Shane let out a territorial growl, stepping back from the raging alpha to get out of the line of fire. All they knew was it had something to do with Lucy, something their minds weren’t catching quick enough on. 

As Shane moved with speed they hadn’t seen him use before to launch himself at Rick, Daryl swung Lucy out of the way of impact. The little lithe omega naturally wrapped herself around Daryl, her legs tightening around his waist as her arms hung around his neck. She crushed herself to him, lost in what was going on, her face buried into his neck. 

Rick took Shane’s tackle head-on, rolling with him on the ground and back up into an interlocked position. They stood hands on each other’s shoulders as they fought for dominance. Rick didn’t want it to come to blows, he had to get his friend to see reason. However Shane didn’t see it that way. All he saw was an alpha who was taking everything away from him. 

They growled at one another, their teeth snapping like walkers tearing at human flesh. Lori held Carl close to her, her eyes on the two men she had history with. She couldn’t understand what was going on right now, but part of her mind thought they were doing this for her. Rick brought some unknown woman back to camp and Shane was teaching him a lesson. It was a relishing thought. She felt a sense of power from it, as though she could tame these alphas, ensuring her place and protection. 

Lucy closed her eyes and hugged tighter to Daryl, a whimper slithering up her throat. She had never seen this before, two alphas attacking one another. Daryl and Rick had told her this place was safe, but it didn’t feel that way. She didn’t like it, she missed her alpha. She missed his protection, his comfort, his warmth. Clinging to Daryl, Lucy felt utterly alone in a stranger’s world. 

Tears soaked Daryl’s skin as Lucy cried in fright. His muscles tensed and his arms tightened around her. He didn’t know how to soothe her, how to calm her down. All he knew were harsh words and violence. He hadn’t grown up with a warm home and kindness, he grew up hard just like his brother Merle. He was broken, any alpha would be doing better. 

Rick and Shane broke apart, Rick crouching as Shane rolled his shoulders that were stiff from the strength Rick had been holding them. 

“Shane, brother, you have to calm down man,” Rick tried to reason with his best friend. “You have to stop or you’re going to terrify her.”

Shane growled, his eyes fixated on Rick. His best friend, his partner. The man he had looked up to, had been there for. The man he had left to die in the hospital, thinking he was already gone. The man whose family he had saved. He had loved. 

Shane threw his head back and let out a heartbreaking cry. Always second best, always the weaker alpha. He was never going to be enough for anyone. Hell he wasn’t even enough for Lori. Another broken cry left him and then he collapsed, his back hitting the cruiser as he hung his head in shame. 

Rick looked to everyone else, knowing their staring was just another wound to the alpha’s pride. “Go on now, all of you. Go back to doing whatever you were. This ain’t no rodeo side show.” 

Everyone began to retreat back into the heart of the camp. The only ones left in the end were Lori and Dale. The latter gave a brief nod before retreating back to his RV while the former put her hands on her hips. 

“Just what is going on here? Since when are you two at odds, you’ve been friends for years.” Lori stood her ground, her face one of impatience. She wanted to know what the hell was going on.

Rick stared at his wife, annoyed she hadn’t listened to him and gone away. The last thing an alpha needed was a beta overstepping the line of dominate. 

Then the sounds of sniffling pulled everyone’s eyes to Daryl, who was giving them all a nasty glare while he held onto a crying Lucy. Lori frowned again, her eyes staring holes into the back of Lucy’s head. 

“What are you, some baby? The world isn’t cut out for babies anymore.” Lori wasn’t pleased with her. 

Lucy stiffened in Daryl’s arms. She licked her lips and swallowed what little saliva in her mouth she had down her drying throat. The woman was right. She was acting like some kind of scared child, crying because she was scared. She couldn’t do this, couldn’t be this way. 

‘You killed a walker, remember? Suck it up. Daryl didn’t coddle you, this world isn’t made for meek omegas anymore.’ 

Lucy didn’t notice Daryl growling as she let her body slide down his hard muscled one. When her feet hit the ground, she wiped her face and raised her head. 

‘You have to be strong now. No one will want you if you’re weak. Just like he didn’t want you.’

Lucy looked at Lori, the woman was full of aggressive stance, hands on hips as if ready to give her more of a scolding. This was Rick’s wife. 

‘She isn’t beautiful.’

The thought was like a tiny voice of the devil in the back of Lucy’s mind. It gave her both a boost in confidence but also a stab of guilt. She had built up an image of Lori in her mind. A beautiful omega woman, one with soft curves and a sweet expression. Someone a dominate like Rick would cherish and protect. Instead a harsh looking woman stood before her. Square-like jaw, extended cheek bones, squinty eyes, and a wide mouth of thin lips. 

Lucy continued to let her eyes travel over Lori, noting the lack of curvy omega physique that even male omegas tended to have. Instead the woman had lanky arms and legs, a thin torso that seemed to simply run down into boyish hips. Her appearance in the eyes of Lucy was masculine and unsatisfying. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Lucy thought as she took in all of Lori Grimes. She had been raised in an environment that taught the importance of omega beauty. 

Her momma had been the most beautiful woman she had ever seen with thick glossy Irish red hair that was so dark it looked black in the night. When she stood in the light, her hair had gleamed like spun rubies. Something Lucy had inherited from her momma was her blue-green eyes. They were the same almost wide but slanted shape, like an adorable cartoon cat. 

Her papa had always told her she was the best of both her parents, a beauty any alpha could be happy to call their own. He encouraged her to keep up with fashion trends, beauty products, and girly things that enhanced her natural beauty. As he taught her, an omega was only as valuable to her alpha as she was desired by others. He had fought against many alphas for her mother. He wanted her alpha to do the same. 

“He has to be strong, Lubella,” her dad would say. “He has to take care of you, value you above all others. He has to fight for you, has to protect you. He deserves only the best side of you if he does this because he is willing to give up everything for you.” 

As Lucy stared at Lori, she felt her nails bite into her palms. ‘You’re wrong dad. He left me in the end. What is beauty? What is submission? I couldn’t hold onto him. Even with my best side, he threw me away. This woman isn’t beautiful like you raised me to believe, but she is strong. She is fearless to make demands of her own alpha. She is brave enough to survive this new world. This form of beauty is nothing I can compete with, isn’t something I can apply to my skin or dress my body with. If this is the beauty that holds the loyalty of an alpha now, your daughter will never have that kind of life again.’ 

All these thoughts happened in the span of a few seconds. Lucy came to a true and profound revelation of how the new world was. Alphas didn’t want meek omegas, they wanted powerful women who could stand beside them in world where monsters waited in the dark. If she didn’t start making a change she would be left behind again, tossed away to die in another dark room as walkers beat against the door to suck the meat from her bones. 

‘Be strong.’

“Sorry about the awkward introduction, you must be Lori. Rick told me about you and your son. My name is Lucy, happy to meet you.” Lucy’s voice was still singsong, the hint of accent lacing through it. The only thing to note was the hardened undertone she pushed into her words, as if trying to make a pronounced stand in front of this other woman. Lucy didn’t comment at all on Lori’s previous statement about her acting like a baby. She didn’t even acknowledge it. 

Lori looked over her, pleased that Rick had already told her about everything. That meant he hadn’t brought Lucy there because he wanted her. That left Daryl. Lori could live with that choice, Daryl was too introverted for an alpha. His lack of interest in leadership wasn’t natural. 

“Nice to meet you, Lucy,” Lori tried to be sincere, her voice coming out sweet like honey, though scratchy near the end. 

Daryl glared at Lori. He had never been a fan of Shane, let alone his woman. Well he supposed she was Rick’s woman now. What a fucked up mess that all was. Though it didn’t matter to him whose dick she rode as long as it wasn’t his dick. What did matter to him was how she behaved around Lucy. The girl has gone through things, things he didn’t even know because she hadn’t told them everything. But he was sure she had lost her alpha and that was enough of a soul-sucking experience for an omega. 

Rick was irritated with his wife. She didn’t have the right to question him or Shane or Daryl. The primal part of his brain that pulsed couldn’t accept her cheeky mouth towards Lucy either. As of a few minutes ago there were now only two people in this camp that could speak their minds freely towards the three men. Lori wasn’t one of them. 

“Why don’t you go on back to making dinner,” Rick said, standing up to his full height and staring down his wife, watching as her eyes darted between the four of them.

Lori’s eyes settled on Lucy in the end. She knew she needed to do as Risk asked, but she wasn’t happy about the situation still. Lucy was aware of her status in the camp, but the girl needed to see it firsthand. What better way than making dinner and listening to the other women? 

“Lucy why don’t you leave these smelly men here and come with me to where the women are? We can let them work out whatever it is and I can introduce you to the rest of the girls.”

Lucy glanced towards Daryl first, then Lori watched as she turned to look at Rick too, as if asking both them for permission. Gritting her teeth, Lori stepped forward and gripped Lucy’s forearm, tugging her to the group of women before she could even make up her mind. 

Daryl took a step forward to stop Lori when Rick put a hand on his shoulder. Daryl scowled at the man. 

“Let it go for now, Daryl. Lucy needs to learn to handle this herself. In this new world, I’m afraid the teachings Lucy may have learned before on how to survive as an omega may just get her killed.”

Frowning, Daryl glanced in Lucy’s direction. “She say somethin’ to you?”

Rick shook his head. “No, but Lucy isn’t the first omega I have interacted with. They may be rare, but the way they are brought up is not. You should know right, that alphas are possessive and territorial. When we have something, we protect it with all we have, risk our very lives to keep it. Because of that omegas are taught since puberty that they are nothing more than a shiny decoration that was born to obey an alpha.”

Daryl felt a shudder run down his spine as he stared at Lucy. He wondered just what kind of life she had lived before all this. Who exactly was her alpha before? 

“I never thought there would come a day I’d be able to even get near an omega until all this shit happened and we joined this camp. The first day Merle and I saw Sophia the urge to leave all these sorry asses behind vanished. We couldn’t go, couldn’t leave her like that. Hell Merle said we should just take her with us, that she would be safer with two alphas watching her grow up. But I said we couldn’t, that we was too fucked up, redneck trash. Maybe Merle was right though. If we had run with Sophia…”

Rick raised an eyebrow. “Then you wouldn’t have found Lucy.”

Daryl looked away from Lucy. ‘Was meeting her worth losing Merle though? She was just a stranger to me. Merle was my brother.’ 

Shane rose to his feet and stood next to Rick, his eyes on the two alphas beside him. “I’m sorry Rick.” 

Rick clasped Shane on the shoulder and gave the other alpha a smile. “It was instinct, don’t worry about it. I would have been more upset if I’d hurt you, I owe you so much for getting Lori and Carl to safety.”

Daryl and Shane stared at one another then. The only thing Daryl could think of was that Lori had paid that debt several times over, Rick shouldn’t be filled with the guilt of not being there. In turn, Shane couldn’t help but repeat those few words in his head, ‘…upset if I’d hurt you…’. Rick hadn’t even thought he would lose that fight. 

Turning his head and flaring his nostrils, Shane tried to let it go for now. “Well glad neither of us got hurt alright. Now are you guys gonna tell me how you managed to find an abandoned omega?”

Daryl and Rick glanced to one another then Daryl shrugged. “Go for it officer friendly, I’m going to check on Lucy then go clean up.”

Rick laughed as the redneck walked away, stopping at the women’s group to pat Lucy on the head before turning towards the camp are that belonged to him.

“Well Shane, to tell you the truth we caught sight of this motel that seemed to have a couple dozen walkers. It was in a remote area of the city so Daryl and I decided to set it on fire, but then…” 

Rick told Shane about catching Lucy’s scent, how they found her withering in one of the rooms in agony he had never seen before or heard of for that matter with an omega. Her alpha must have died fighting walkers, because there was no way any alpha would leave their omega in heat. 

“She said he left her, it was the first thing we heard her say this morning when she woke up. I reckon he must have gone out to get something but the motel got over ran and he didn’t make it. She hasn’t said anything more about it, really she hasn’t said anything. I think she’s still in shock about it all.”

Shane turned to watch Lucy as she sat with the women. She wasn’t smiling or laughing like the others. She wasn’t even talking, just sittin’ there. It looked out of place, as if she wasn’t really there but was at the same time, like a person watching a play. 

“Is she going to be alright?” Shane turned to face Rick with a serious expression. 

Rick rubbed his jaw a moment, eyes watching Lucy. “She’ll come around. Omegas from what I know always adjust to new alphas in the end. It’s a survival mechanism. In less civilized societies where alpha suppressants aren’t used, alphas do what you just did. They attack other alphas over their omega. When an alpha who wasn’t originally with the omega wins, what do you think the omega can do?”

Shane sighed. “That’s no way to live.”

“But it’s the way of our primal nature. Don’t think on it too much though. I’m sure Lucy will have a new alpha by her side in no time.” Rick chuckled and began to walk towards the women. 

Shane stood there, watching his best friend with hooded eyes. He wasn’t sure how Rick could be so certain, but he didn’t like it at all. If he couldn’t have Lori, Rick couldn’t have Lucy. There had to be some kind of order in the universe, it can’t keep handing everything over to his partner and leaving him with nothing.


	6. *Chapter Six*

Lucy watched as the women around her interacted, her sense of self-worth faltering even more as she listened to them chat about their daily lives. They did laundry, they fished, and they cooked. These women provided the basic form of alpha care for the whole camp. With Lori, Lucy knew Rick was also having the more primal needs satisfied, though she didn’t understand his choice in wife. 

It wasn’t that she disliked Lori. Sure the woman had been rude and overbearing. Even after she had joined the women, Lori had made sure to neglect Lucy in any manner of true conversation that didn’t appear to be a backhanded compliment. 

For instance she had commented on Lucy’s hands, how they were so soft. It was the apocalypse, such skin care was surly something to be admired. How could Lucy defend herself and say that due to being an omega, her body was naturally softer than others, built for alpha care and motherhood. Once again her genetics were not winning her any points in building a life in this new world. 

No, the true matter of it all was that Lucy was at a loss on how Rick had fathered a child with this woman who at puberty was second gendered as a beta. Her father had always told her that alphas and omegas were a rare beast and they belonged together so much that the gods had taken away the ability to breed with a beta. Yet here, all her teachings in life were being destroyed in this new world. What obedient omega? What childbearing gifts from the gods? What gods when the dead walked the world?

A dull headache had set in as Lucy listened to the women around her joke and laugh like old friends. No one talked directly to her, she didn’t understand the verbal clues to interject into the conversation topics they had chosen, and she really wanted to know what a vibrator was because Andrea wouldn’t stop talking about it. The only person who seemed just as quiet as Lucy was the woman sitting beside a girl child that Lucy wanted to get up and hug.   
When Daryl came by and patted Lucy’s head, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Was she to stay with the women? Was he praising her for doing such a good job being still and behaved? Trying not to pout as he departed without actually saying anything, Lucy was determined to see his patting as praise. She most defiantly was doing something he was happy about. 

Lori noticed when Daryl walked by and patted Lucy on the head. It was reassuring to her that they had brought the woman back for Daryl and she didn’t have to worry about Rick. Besides they were married anyways, he wasn’t going to throw that away. They may have had problems before the end of the world started, but now she was all he had, he couldn’t be choosy. 

Granted she had a fling with Shane, but no one had said a thing and with Shane being an alpha, she knew no one would want to set off that ticking time bomb on the group. She didn’t need to worry either about Shane coming clean either, he wouldn’t risk that kind of crazy fight. 

Her eyes narrowed at Lucy a moment. Actually since that dominance display, she wasn’t sure anymore what Shane would risk. Out of nowhere he had attached Rick, and she was sure that is was about her and how Rick disrespected her – come on, neither of them attached her when she demanded answers. Rick had told her to go back to the women, but it was obvious it was because he was in the wrong. 

Lucy noticed Lori looking at her and tried to appear unbothered by the intensity. She just gave the woman a small smile and contemplated how to speak to her. Luckily she didn’t have to think too hard as Rick and Shane returned to the group, the menfolk gathering around the women to get their supper. Amy scooted closer to Lucy and handed her a bowl of beans with squirrel chunks. 

“I know Rick said to give you time, but I couldn’t help but notice your lonesome expression. My name is Amy and that crazy woman over there is my older sister Andrea.” 

Lucy smiled the way Amy joked about her sister with affection. “The one who likes vibrators?”

All the women cackled at that sept Carol, she tried to smile but her eyes caught Ed glancing her way with a scowl on his face. 

“Yeah the one and the same. Between you and me she had a whole stash of different-“

“Amy!” Andrea blushed red and slapped her hand over her sister’s mouth. “Ignore that Lucy, we just like to have a laugh every now and then. End of the world, you know?”

Lucy nodded, tilting her head a moment and biting her lip. “Um…Andrea…”

Andrea blinked at the new woman, curiosity filling her eyes and the blush on Lucy’s face. “Yes?”

Lucy squirmed feeling as though the whole camp had glanced her way. “Um…What is a vibrator?”

Andrea blinked at Lucy, her mouth opening as if to say something but instead it just gaped like a goldfish. Jacqui shoved a bite of supper in her mouth to keep from saying anything or laughing and Amy poked her sister in the cheek in disbelief that such a question could render her speechless. Carol focused on her bowl of beans as Ed glared at her, as if this was all her fault he had to listen to this shit. 

Lori was surprised at the question to say the least. She couldn’t believe in America there was a woman who didn’t at least know what a vibrator was. They were sexually liberated enough that sex toys should have been in ‘the talk’ of her teenage life. 

The men however had all stiffened – in more ways than one. Though they sat together and pretended they were focused on their food, Rick, Daryl, and Shane were straining their ears to hear more. Glenn had a huge blush on his face and picked at his food, trying to look as though the topic of conversation with the women didn’t interest him a bit and Dale threw his hands in the air and went back to the top of the RV. He had started to see Amy and Andrea as daughters and he really didn’t want to know these things. 

Andrea closed her mouth and took a breath through her nose, letting it out through her mouth as she stared at Lucy who watched her with a calm waiting expression. 

“It’s a sex toy, Lucy – have you ever had sex?”

This time Lucy’s entire face turned scarlet. Of course she had sex…a lot of it during specific times of the month. But she had never been given a sex toy before. Since her very first heat, Lucy had been handed over to an alpha for care. Suppressants were not allowed for her, she had to perform her rite as an omega. Later, she had formed a bond with an alpha and moved in with him after he paid her father the mating fee. 

“I – yes, yes I have.” Lucy glanced towards the men briefly before darting her eyes back to Andrea. 

“Have you ever used a toy? I mean I get it some women don’t, but they at least know they are out there with all the social media and movies-“

Lucy fidgeted and Andrea stopped talking. “I never got to watch a lot of movies…I was busy.”

Everyone in camp watched how Lucy folded into herself, scooping food out of her bowl and putting it into her mouth. They recognized that behavior, they had watched Carol do it enough times to understand it. Amy felt like crying for the girl and Andrea wanted to punch Ed because he was the only prick around. Lori felt like reaching out to Lucy and giving her a hug, but instead she pulled Carl close and nuzzled into his hair. 

Rick and Daryl were stiff where they sat, their eyes glaring into their bowls as if it was the beans fault for the whole apocalypse. Just her behavior had answered questions both men had harbored about her. They had wondered what her life was like before and now they knew, now they understood that docile lifeless set of eyes that didn’t rebel or reject anything. 

Feeling the atmosphere become dark, Lucy felt like she had done a disservice speaking up. She thought that the women would just answer her question or even laugh it all off, but it seemed something she did had upset the group. 

Clearing her throat, Lucy started to hum, determined to give something back even if it was just doing one of the things she was trained to be good at. Once her humming picked up a steady rhythm, allowing her foot to tap to the beat, Lucy began to sing.

“Here thy head, how it rests upon a scarce stone,  
Hear thy heart, how it beats that scarce song,  
The blood in the veins warms the body with no shame  
The heat in the skin flushes away our deviant sins

So on this night won’t you hold  
Hold this creature who cries so bold  
Take pity on me, take pity on me  
Help me, help me burn away

Here thy body is yours, how it withers for  
Here thy hand clasped for all time, fingers entwined  
The blood boils, the howl fills the night  
The flesh bruises, but we make it alright

So on this night won’t you hold  
Hold this creature who cries so bold  
Take pity on me, take pity on me  
Help me, help me burn, burn away

When the sun rises it’s all over  
When the sun rises walk away  
The end is here, blood run cold  
The two of us nevermore

So this night don’t you hold  
Hold this creature nevermore  
Let me be, let me be  
Help me find sanctuary”

Her voice was lovely and filled with sorrow, but the song brought much needed tears to everyone’s eyes as they thought about the family and friends that were gone now. Unknowingly they were all holding something in, some kind of pain or anguish. A good cry, a good moment of grief, was a promise of a lighter heart in the morning. Already Lucy’s natural instinct to be a mother of a pack, a family had kicked in and her gentle personality shined as tears flowed freely down into her bowl of half-eaten beans. 

She let out a hiccup and a sniffle as everyone else did as well. A good cry was never a bad thing, people just forget that it can cleanse the soul. 

Daryl frowned, unsure of what to do. Tears fell for losing Merle and fell for his past. Yet at the same time he wanted to be strong, to stand on his own feet and be that badass he tried to be in front of everyone else. His eyes moved to Lucy and he saw her eyelids drift a moment, signaling she had warn herself out.

Placing his bowl down, Daryl got up and moved to Lucy, his hands going around her waist as he picked her up and moved to carry her bridal style back towards his own tent. He didn’t want her sleeping with someone who couldn’t protect her and he didn’t trust anyone to be able to. 

Rick and Shane watched, small frowns on both their faces and growls rumbling quietly in their chest. Daryl was making an unknown flux-pass by choosing to take Lucy into his own tent. It was a clear symbol of his intended claim and it bothered Rick and Shane that they had yet to talk all this out. 

Rick didn’t like the feel he had when he watched Daryl put her in his tent. Of course he figured Lucy would become Daryl’s omega…But damn it he was hoping that he could teach Daryl how to be a better man than the violent redneck he met days ago. He didn’t feel comfortable just leaving her in the hands of that possible temper of his. It was just too soon for her to be so far away from Rick, he couldn’t accept it. 

Shane, on the other hand, was once again feeling like his authority was being completely ignored. Did Daryl ask him if Lucy was going to sleep in his tent? Did he ask Shane if the man wanted to protect Lucy and take her in? No. He just scooped her off and walked off with her. The only positive in this to Shane was that Rick was – 

‘Wait, what is Rick doing?’ Shane thought to himself as Rick got up and headed to the tent he shared with Lori, breaking it down and shoving everything out of it left and right. 

Getting up, Shane went and tapped Rick on the shoulder. “Um…Rick…What are you doing right now?”

Lori, too, had seen that Rick had started breaking down their tent. Curious and wiping her eyes from her tears, she followed Shane over to her husband. “Honey…That was our bedroom…”

Rick glanced over at Shane and Lori before folding the tent so he could carry it. Then, tilting his head in Daryl’s direction, Rick walked right on over and put his tent up right next to Daryl’s without even asking the man. 

“What the hell,” Lori asked with a frown, watching Rick come back and gather up their belongings and cots moving back and forth until everything was in their tent again. 

Shane, on the other hand, scrambled to where his own tent was, understanding on his face. Quickly he broke down his own sleeping quarters and moved everything to the other side of Daryl’s tent. By the time he was done setting everything up, Daryl was standing in front of his own tent with a snarl on his face. 

“What the fuck you think you’re doing you proxy bastards?! Go back where you was!” A growl rolled loudly like thunder in Daryl’s chest. His eyes were narrowed at Rick and Shane. 

Rick stood up to his full height and stared Daryl down. With a friendly but sarcastic smile, he simply shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, no can do.” Then without a second glance, Rick crawled into his family’s tent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know its kinda angsty right now, but I plan to add in comedy too. I almost stopped writing this because I love my husband reading out loud to me and giving me input, but he read the first chapter and told me it made him feel slimy and there was way too much sexual tension. 
> 
> Do you feel like I'm going too heavy on the sexual tension? Let me know, I don't usually write sexual anything so this is all new to me. 
> 
> Also, yes, I wrote the song sadly so there is no audio for you to hear how it goes - I have no faith in my voice to sing it on recording.


	7. *Chapter Seven*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Smut. Scroll down to End Smut to begin reading if you don't want to read Lori/Shane. 
> 
> Sorry for a late update - Adjusting is a bit hard on the inspiration flow. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Rick and Lori also hadn’t slept well through the night. They had argued in hushed tones inside Rick’s tent about everything from what he has done since he got there to Lucy. In the end, Rick had used his alpha dominance to subdue Lori’s relentless behavior. He turned his back on her, making him even more irritated because it meant facing the opposite direction of Daryl’s tent. 

When Lori got up that morning, she had a one thing in mind, and it didn’t take her long to track Shane down out by the water pond. She had been ignoring him since Rick had got back, trying to stay away from him as much as she could bring herself to. However after last night she needed to lose herself in some fashion; Shane was convenient. 

They tangled into one another without worry of being found out – Rick was too busy anyway having gone out to hunt down something more to eat. The urge to make sure the omegas in the group were well fed leading him away before she was up. Everyone else in the camp already knew about them despite no one saying a word on it, so there was no risk them noticing the two were both missing at the same time. 

Shane gripped her hair as he kissed her hard, showing no mercy as they hit a pile of dead leaves and whatever else littered the ground beneath them, jerking her pants down and exposing her to the elements. He was angry, so angry with how everything was unfolding, his control of the situation being usurped just the like woman quivering under the steady pump of his fingers was. He growled into her mouth before jerking her up and flipping her onto her knees. 

Undoing his belt, he held the back of her neck as he thrust into her hard, stretching her in one go with no mercy. Lori cried out, but the tightening at her core made her even slicker as he pulled out all the way and thrust in again. His fingers moved to tangle in her long hair, tightening it up and jerking her head back pointing her face openly to the sky as he fucked her. 

As cries spilt out of Lori’s mouth, he leaned over her back, using his other hand grip her hip so he could thrust into her harder, his cock grinding into her cervix. Voice low and grunted-sounding, he called her dirty names, smacking her ass as she came undone on him. Her walls clenched around his cock, but he pulled out stiff and unsatisfied. 

Hand still fisted in her hair, he jerked Lori around, watching her wince, but the dreamy look in her eye from her orgasm was still there letting her ride out the sexual high. It was a look he liked to see on her face, making his stiffness twitch as if to remind him. His free hand pinched one of her nipples through her shirt making her gasp, her mouth opening wide as her body shuttered. Without even giving her a second, he slammed her head down on his shaft, feeling her choke a little as he hit the back of her throat before she started bobbing her head up and down of her own accord. 

Shane closed his eyes and felt the thickness of her hot tongue and sucking cheeks working him to completion. At least this, this was something he still controlled. His sack tightened and his shaft throbbed as he found release, but the ache in his chest that had started when it was done left it a worthless luxury. Both of them washed up, cleaning it all away and got dressed in silence. They parted ways and headed back to camp in different directions. 

### End Smut

Daryl had felt restless all night knowing the other men were on either side of his territory. After Lucy had fell asleep he found himself curling around her sleeping form, his eyes constantly darting to his tent flaps, his ears peeled for footsteps or the sound of the zipper being touched. He was on edge and barely slept a wink until the early morning when the familiar sounds of camp moving about and the warmth from Lucy’s body made him begin to snore in her ear.

Daryl grunted in his sleep as Lucy tried to wiggle out of his protective grip on her waist. An arm thick with muscle was pinning her to the makeshift bed on the tent floor. “Umm…Daryl…” She whispered, biting her lip as he mumbled something incoherent into her ear. “Uh, Daryl I…” Really need to pee is what she thought, but she felt embarrassed to say that. 

But Daryl wasn’t having it, he was so tired the sandman had really hit him hard when he finally crashed. He couldn’t make out a peep of the real world, and all he could do was hear Lucy’s voice calling him gently in his dreams. He growled and curled closer to the source of warmth in his bed. 

Lucy wiggled more as the sound of a zipper moving caught her attention, her eyes darting to the tent flap just in time for Rick to pop his head in and check on her. It was an absolute rude thing to do, encroaching on the other alpha’s personal space, but Rick didn’t feel bad about it. “Need some help there, Miss Lucy?” He nodded to her current situation. 

She blushed scarlet as Rick stared at her with those blue peepers of his. So pretty, they drew her in, wanting to look and keep on looking at something so vivid when the world had turned so dark. Thank god for her darker complexion, she could feel her face flushing hot. 

“I…” Lucy wiggled more, the pressure in her bladder making her want to cry in frustration. She bit her bottom lip and looked at Rick almost pleadingly. 

Rick smiled at the woman, crawling into Daryl’s tent with no shame. The closer he crept in, he knew the other alpha would wake to the intrusion. All it took was a good deep breath- 

Daryl’s eyes flickered open as he moved quickly, his body turning into a shield over Lucy as he growled, his face mere inches away from Ricks. 

“Daryl, Lucy would like to pee, mind releasing her?” Rick stated calmly in the snarling face of the other alpha. Lucy just watched in surprise of it all, that Rick, as an alpha, didn’t…follow the rules she understood. 

Daryl blinked his sleep heavy eyes, one hand rubbing it while he kept Rick in sight. “Get the fuck out Officer Friendly.” It came out with a rolling growl, and Rick nodded again to Lucy before he crawled back out the way he had come in, slowly but with ease. 

One he was outside the flap, Daryl eased off Lucy, scooting away to give her space. He didn’t want to crowd her…or really be close to her at all…but he couldn’t help himself. She stirred that part of the alpha in him. 

“Want me to walk you somewhere?” He grunted out, still tired. 

Lucy stretched a little, wiggling about cramped limbs and halfway crawled to the tent flap when Daryl offered to help her get to where she needed to go. Face flush a little, she was going to say no – how awkward for him to know where she had decided to crouch and take a piss in the woods! But then thought better of it. She’d rather have the security that he was close to help then worry about her dignity. 

“Thank you,” she replied softly, waiting for him to move before climbing out of his tent. Once outside she stretched again, noticing Rick sitting nearby with a handful of rabbits, skinning them. He glanced over as if feeling her watching and gave her a warm smile. She noticed next to him sat the little boy from the night before. 

Daryl clambered out of his tent, nearly turning back into it when he noticed his private camp space had been invaded by the other alphas. Lucy called out to him, however and he snorted nodding.

“Come on then,” Man of few words when he wasn’t arguing, Daryl led Lucy away into the woods to do her business. 

Rick watched them go, wanting to follow after but squashing the urge back down. Daryl could handle this, he was sure. Besides he needed to skin the rabbits he had managed and get them going so that the children could eat something more than beans. 

“Mom,” Carl jumped up from his place and raced over to Lori as she started over, her face grim at the sight of Rick, unsure how to face him after her adventure in the woods. She gave herself a sniff, hoping she had washed her affair away before wrapping her arms around her son.

“Your daddy teachin’ you a thing or two?” She motioned to the rabbits, but Carl just shook his head. 

“Dad says I don’t have a steady hand yet. Told me to practice carving sticks to get a feel of a blade in my hands.”

Lori smiled and kissed the top of her son’s head. “Good. I’d rather not find a finger in the stew.” Carl made a face. “Gross mom,” he pulled away and walked back over to his father, picking up a thick branch to practice. 

Lucy came out of the woods, face flushed and full of embarrassment at the fact that Daryl had basically listened to her pee. However the redneck didn’t seem to care or notice, he had been focused on the surroundings to insure nothing crept up on them. Walking behind Lucy, Daryl stared down Lori as they got closer, a half smirk on his lips when the beta turned her face away. He hadn’t liked the look she had been giving Lucy – ain’t nothing the woman had done to her for it. 

“Lucy!” The cry of a little girl drew Lucy’s attention away from Lori and her family to the incoming little omega. It wasn’t unusual for omegas to feel a bond with one another, and easy for them to become friends. Sophia had been drawn to Lucy the moment she had seen her, and today she was determined to be around her. 

Smiling, Lucy bent down a little to give the little girl a warm hug. Her naturally motherly instincts having her check the girl over for any kind of injury or sign of illness. “Hello there, sweetie,” Lucy mumbled into the girl’s hair after pulling her back into a hug. “You doin’ okay out here?”

Sophia beamed up at Lucy, a gap between her teeth showing she had lost a tooth. “Momma’s busy with dad so she sent me out to find you. Well she sent me out to find Carl, but you’re here too.”

Sophie glanced over at Carl, her cute face lighting up all over again. “Carl!” She gushed and skipped over to him, sitting a little bit away to keep from being in the way of his knife practice. 

Lucy smiled at the two, not noticing the looks she had gotten from Daryl and Rick with her interaction towards the children. Lori hadn’t missed those looks, however, and she felt the urge to stake claim on Rick. Slinking up and around her husband, she wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled against his cheek, scenting him. 

“Well isn’t it a pretty picture,” Shane said as he came to a standstill, staring at Lori before glancing to the rabbits. “Well a break from squirrel is always good,” he growled before pausing at Lucy. “I didn’t get to properly introduce myself, I’m Shane Walsh. I used to be Rick’s partner before the world went to hell in a handbasket.”

Daryl felt a growl rumble in his chest, his eyes dancing dangerously as he watched Shane near Lucy. Rick may not know, or may not care – he wasn’t sure. But Daryl knew what Shane was all about, his brother Merle had been the same when it came to women. “Lucy,” her name slipped past his lips before he could register he was calling her over. 

“Nice to meet you Shane Walsh,” Lucy mumbled out, her eyes downcast from his face to his hands out of respect that he was an alpha. When Daryl called her name, she gave Shane a smile then went over to the redneck. “Can I do something for you, Daryl?” 

Daryl scratched the back of his neck, he hadn’t had a real reason to call her, and he just didn’t like seeing her close to Shane. “Um…can you keep Sophia company?” He glanced over to see Carl getting irritated with the omega. “I think her playdate is bout to end.”

Lucy grinned and nodded. She would love to spend time with the little omega girl. “Of course, Daryl,” turning her head, she called to Sophia. “Sophia do you want to play go fish? I think I have a deck of cards in my things.”


End file.
